“Decolonization” Rhetoric Haunts Liberals Amid Hamas Terrorist Attacks

On Wednesday, CNN confirmed that Hamas terrorists have “butchered” and “decapitated” Israeli women, children, and even toddlers in a brutal attack on an Israeli kibbutz. Yet despite the unspeakable violence perpetrated against the Israeli people, many liberals have openly defended Hamas in the name of one of the left’s favorite buzzwords – “decolonization.”

According to the left, Israel is an “apartheid” state controlled by “occupiers” and “colonizers” – terms referring to the country’s Jewish residents. Iran-backed Hamas militants are, therefore, not terrorists but “freedom fighters” whose atrocities are justified in the name of “decolonization” – which has in effect become a euphemism for committing genocide against Jews in Israel.

At a pro-Hamas rally in Sydney, Australia, one woman held up a sign that said, “decolonization is not a metaphor” – an apparent justification of the violence. Other activists made similar statements that emphasized the necessity of “decolonization.” Najmi Sharif, a prominent liberal journalist whose work has appeared in many mainstream publications, recently tweeted, “What did y’all think Decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.” Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah supported Sharif’s endorsement of the killing by “liking” her post.

Multiple Black Lives Matter groups nationwide have also come out in support of the Hamas terror attacks in the name of “decolonization.” BLM Chicago posted an image of a Hamas terrorist paragliding into Israel with the caption, “I Stand with Palestine” – an apparent grotesque reference to the paragliding Hamas militants that slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians at an Israeli concert.

BLM Grassroots, meanwhile, issued a lengthy statement that applauded the attacks, asserting a right for “black and Palestinian people” to live on “decolonized land” in a “new world” built from the “ashes” of the old.

The term “decolonization” has been a mainstay of 21st-century liberal rhetoric. In scores of speeches and think pieces, liberals have called on the world to decolonize everything from bookshelves to fields of academic study, government, and even the food we eat. Universities have formed work groups tasked with finding ways to “decolonize” their student bodies.

One of the primary aims of the left’s decolonization agenda is the destruction of so-called “white-centric,” “Euro-centric,” and, notably, “Zion-centric” concepts and ideologies. One school board in Canada went so far as to remove every book in their library published after 2008 in the name of “decolonization.” Liberal college students make TikTok posts celebrating how they “decolonized” their home by throwing away books and destroying products made by Jewish people in Israel.

The underlying assertion of “decolonization” as it is understood by the left today is that every Western structure, from Christianity to capitalism, even the very existence of America and Western history itself are all forces of imperialism that oppress minority groups. That includes Israel, which, according to the left, is an illegitimate state founded on the oppression of Arab peoples (despite the fact that over 20 percent of Israel citizens today are of Arab descent).

Dr. Owen Anderson, a professor of philosophy, religious studies, and theology, has argued that, for the left, decolonization is about reversing the Western European influence on the world through Christianity and capitalism. “By doing this, the decolonizing want to return to indigenous people’s beliefs about the mother goddess, magical rituals, and the oneness of all reality,” he writes.

There are now entire academic disciplines dedicated to “decolonization theory,” which the leftists in academia use as an effective vehicle to peddle what is essentially Marxist ideology to college students. Instead of history being about class struggles, as Marx taught, decolonization theory says that history is defined by struggles between groups of people. Replace the bourgeoisie with white Western Europeans and the proletariat with “oppressed” minorities, and “decolonization theory” and Marxism are virtually indistinguishable.

However, the reaction to Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel is exposing the moral bankruptcy of the left’s “decolonization” rhetoric for all to see.

It is clear to any reasonable observer that the side indiscriminately killing innocent civilians at a music festival, raping women, and murdering babies are the bad guys. But for the left-wing activists brainwashed by the left’s Marxist decolonization ideology, defending Israel and criticizing Hamas is simply not an option. By definition, Israel must be the bad guys because they are the colonizers and the oppressors, while Hamas and the Palestinians are the defenseless victims.

And so the world witnesses the disgusting sight of privileged leftists marching in the street reflexively defending those calling for the extermination of the Jewish race and waging terror campaigns on civilians. For all the liberal fearmongering about conservatives being “literal Nazis,” it is the left-wing activists who are actually normalizing Jewish hate and murder.

This presents a major problem for elected Democrats – many of whom have openly embraced organizations like BLM and the Democratic Socialists of America that are now attempting to justify the violence. While there has always been an uneasy relationship between traditional Democrats and the party’s increasingly radical left-wing base, the Israel-Palestine conflict is now threatening to open a massive rift between the two.

To normal Americans, Democrat and Republican, Hamas brutally torturing and killing civilians is murder, plain and simple. But to the far left, it’s just a natural part of “decolonization.”

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.